Potential fish escape reported to DFO

February 26, 2016 – Port Hardy, B.C.

Marine Harvest Canada has reported a potential escape of its farm-raised salmon to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Severe weather and sea lion predation created several holes in two net pens at Doyle Island salmon farm. Net repairs were completed by scuba divers.

The two net pens held 151,000 salmon weighing about 6.5 kilograms, and have now been harvested and emptied. The final inventory count for both net pens was short 2581 fish (1.7% of total population). This inventory deviation has been reported to DFO.

The last fish escape incident at Marine Harvest Canada occurred in December 2012 (7 fish).

The remaining net pens at Doyle Island farm are scheduled to be harvested in the next two weeks and have been thoroughly inspected by scuba divers to ensure containment integrity.